Regin's gaze found Chase once more. His eyes were focused on her, unwavering, even as he reached to his side and snagged another foe, wrenching its head from its neck.
Behind him lay a trail of carnage, one headless, twitching body after another. His speed was mind-boggling. All those years ago, he'd told her that he'd done incomprehensible feats in order to get back to her.
Now she was seeing them. A lean bear in winter ...
Not far from him, Thad, Natalya, and Brandr fought back to back, dispatching the rest of the fallen Cerunnos and other creatures that had no means of tracing away. Soon the temple was filled with gore, but cleared of live adversaries.
Only the original six of them remained.
And Chase was storming toward her. Regin sheathed her sword and ran for him as well. "Chase!"
When he caught her up against his chest, she clutched him with all the strength in her body. I ran into his arms.
Her eternal mate. I couldn't hold my heart back. "I was so worried!"
Voice ragged, he said, "Nothing keeps me from you." His gaze was fixed on her lips. "Nothing."
"No, Chase!" His words filled her with fear. Words from the past. Is it too late? She beat against his chest, clawing to get free. Declan could never remember.
Because I want him.
But he slanted his mouth over hers, plunging his tongue between her lips before she could yank her head away.
"Nooo!" She kicked him until he finally drew back.
"Sweet as honey," he rasped. "The others had it wrong. You're no' like a drug." Setting back in for more, he groaned, "Better than ..."
She head-butted his throat with a vicious snap. "Chase, stop this!" To the others, she said, "He's remembering. Help me!"
When Brandr, Natalya, and Thad stepped forward, Chase set Regin on her feet, still gripping her arm with one viselike fist. Pure menace emanated from him as he leveled his gaze on the three. Blood had spattered his torso, lines of crimson crisscrossing his scars. "Nothing keeps me from her."
He was a berserker in full rage, with his chest heaving beneath those chilling scars--a terrifying sight for most, yet Regin's heart clenched for him. He's magnificent.
Brandr advanced on him. "I can't let you have her, friend--"
Chase launched a punch; his fist connected with Brandr's face like a cannonball. Brandr's head whipped around, his body lifted off the ground before it dropped. Limp.
When Chase narrowed his gaze at the others, Natalya and Thad both held up their hands.
"We'll let you two work this out between yourselves," Natalya muttered. "See you back at the boat." They each grabbed one of Brandr's arms and started dragging the man away.
Lothaire said, "No hard feelings, then, Blademan? Everyone makes a bad day trade now and again. ... " He trailed off at Chase's look. "Very well, I'll be at the boat. We'll talk then."
It's left to me. Have to escape Chase. "Ah, gods, I don't want to do this." When he turned to her, she brought her sword hilt crashing into his temple.
FIFTY-THREE
"Regin!" Declan roared, his mind mired in confusion as he pursued her through a rain-swept forest.
With each step, his body quickened for her, while memories of a far-distant past bombarded him.
Kissing Regin's sweet lips by the light of a fire while a blizzard howled outside. Laughing with her upon a bed of furs. Teaching her about pleasure.
But those memories were dim compared to the last five days.
Kissing Regin's body under the blaze of her lightning while the wind gusted over them. Lying side by side, talking in murmurs. Learning how to pleasure her. ...
She was his. She owned his heart and commanded his soul and would forever.
Why would she flee him now? When he needed her more than he ever had?
He swiftly caught up to her as she tore along a streambed, farther and farther into a narrowing canyon. Until it dead-ended with high walls all around. "Nowhere to run, Valkyrie."
She dashed across the stream and back, searching for a way out. "Damn it!" She raised her sword. "I'll use this."
He stalked closer. "Nothing comes between us." Not time, not death. He lunged forward, snatching the sword from her grip, tossing it away. "Why would you deny me?"
"I have to--you can't do this!"
"I can and I will." His hand shot out to loop around her waist, dragging her close. "I need you so badly, Regin."
Her eyes went silver. Yet then her expression hardened. "If you take me tonight, it won't be without a fight."
"So long as I take you."
When Chase dipped down to kiss her again, Regin punched him with all her strength.
He drew back with his brows drawn, not in pain, but in confusion. The hit hadn't even fazed him. He was stronger than he'd ever been, faster too. And she wore the torque.
Utterly impossible to best him.
It was her nature to fight, to rail--but she'd fought Aidan in the past. And look where that got me.
No more.
Maybe if she stayed calm, she could bring him back from the brink? Steeling her resolve, she raised her hand to cup his cheek. "I need your help."
He frowned down at her.
"I have to talk to you. And I need you to be calm." She brushed his wet hair from his forehead. "That's it. Be at ease."
When the mad light in his eyes ebbed somewhat, she continued, "I want to be with you for longer than one night. And to do that, we've got to stop this. We've got to pull back."
"Nothing will stop me from claiming you this night. Nothing."
"Then you're going to widow me again? Don't you care about me?"
He gripped her nape. "I fuckin' love you, Regin!" Rain spiked his lashes as he gazed down at her, commanding her, "Love me back!"
Can't lose him. "J-just wait, Aidan!"
His eyes went wild again; he threw back his head and roared, his neck straining.
"Please, Aidan, be calm!"
When he faced her again, he bellowed, "I am no' goddamned Aidan! You're talkin' to Declan. Do you no' see me, woman?"
"N-not Aidan?" She blinked against the rain. "What? How?"
He gave his head a harsh shake, clearly struggling to gain control of his emotions. "I've got his memories. No' the other way around. He's a part of me. That's all."
"You're still ... Declan?" This had never happened before! Maybe the outcome could be changed as well? Or maybe you're grasping at straws.
Voice hoarse, he said, "Aye, it's me. I will never be your perfect Viking, Regin! I've made unforgivable mistakes. I've no family or friends, and my men hold no love for me. I'm scarred inside and out. And I'm bloody askin' for you anyway!"
You're the one that I want. Yet then she shivered with fear. "But the curse--"
"Has no reign over me, no' over us. The past has no hold!" He brushed his battered knuckles along her cheek again and again. "Can you see me, see the man that I am? Accept me, Regin, because I'm holdin' on to nothin' but you."
A thousand years ago, Aidan had taken her hands in his own and asked her to accept him. Tragedy had followed for all his days. "Declan, I'm ... afraid. I'm scared to."
"You know this is different. You have to feel it too."
Do I? Or do I just want him so much?
He dipped down, his lips slanting over hers. He gave a sharp groan at the contact, but he was gentle, tempering his brutal strength for her. And she loved him for it.
Gods, how she loved him.
In the past, whenever the frenzy had seized him, she'd been swept up, answering his beast. Now some long-dormant part of her was waking, clamoring for his kiss, for his claiming.
Resisting it went against her every instinct. She couldn't deny that primal pull--not when her heart craved him just as feverishly.
Want him so badly, love him so much. ...
The conflict within her grew stronger. She feared, but she hungered--soon she was deepening the contact. Even as she lamented her weakness, she savored his firm lip
s and lapped at his tongue.
When he returned her forays with wicked flicks, shivers raced over her. He kissed her until they were breathing for each other, until she got lost in the bliss, scarcely aware as he began stripping her, then himself. She only realized she was naked when she felt the rain on her sensitive skin.
By the time she lay back on their discarded clothes, she was panting with need; he looked on the verge of losing control as he moved between her legs.
His body was taut with readiness, his brawny arms and pecs bulging. His shaft was a heavy rod, straining toward her.
Lightning flashed, shadowing his scars in relief, like brands over his skin. But each raised lash called to mind his strength, his will to survive.
Magnificent male.
As her gaze was lovingly tracing over every inch of his body, he'd been regarding hers just as intently. "Look at you, my beautiful Regin. You think I'd surrender you to another? You are mine." He fisted his hand in her hair, yanking her up to him. "Say my name, Regin."
She breathed, "Declan."
He leaned forward to suck her earlobe. "I'm goin' to fuck you till you scream it. Fuck you till we lose count."
She gasped, his words making her tremble.
"But I need to get you ready." He drew back, his smoldering gaze riveted to her sex. "Spread your thighs for me."
When she eagerly obeyed, he bent down. She could feel his hot breath against her flesh as he nuzzled her curls, making her nipples pucker into aching points.
"Never get enough of this." He pressed his opened mouth to her, his tongue snaking over her clitoris.
"Ah, yes, yes!" she cried over the thunder booming through the canyon.
His low growls, his hungry mouth. Already she grew close.
When he delved his finger inside her, he groaned, "Gettin' so wet, baby." He wedged another one in, thrusting them just enough to ready her--while keeping her on the brink.
The pleasure soon bordered on pain. Gazing up at the sky in agony, she begged, "Declan, please."
"What do you want, Regin? Tell me and it's yours."
She couldn't fight this. Inevitable. But it was different this time--because Declan remained himself. "I n-need you inside me."
"You're wantin' my shaft, then," he murmured against her. "I'll make you come so hard with it."
She gave a strangled cry. Gods, she did want it--she ached for it, shamelessly rolling her hips.
He rose, pressing wet kisses up her body, his dog tags trailing up her torso. A hard suck on each of her nipples made her head thrash.
"Ah, please!"
The corded ridges down his torso rippled when he knelt between her legs, his biceps flexing as he clamped her hips and jerked her closer.
He fisted his length. When the broad head found her wetness, she cried out; his eyes went heavy-lidded, his jaw slack.
He began running that swollen tip up and down, groaning in anguish each time it briefly breached her core. "You're goin' to be so tight and wet for me."
Keening his name, she mindlessly undulated, rocking on the crown.
"That's it, lass, move on me!" In that husky voice, he told her, "Get your honey all over it."
His gravelly words sent her to the very edge. When he fitted the broad head inside her, she demanded, "Deeper."
He bit out, "Need to ... go easy--"
"Deeper." Her claws sank into the tight muscles of his ass.
"Ah, Regin!" He surged home, filling her with thick, pulsating flesh. "Mine!" he roared in triumph.
His shaft was unyielding inside her, stretching her, forcing her body to accept his. When he seated himself as deep as he could go, she surrendered with a scream, her sheath contracting around him. "Declan!"
As her orgasm burned through her, his steely gray eyes held her gaze. "I can ... can feel you comin'."
When the waves of pleasure finally crested, they didn't recede. She was still as frantic for him, her lightning forking out over them.
He raised himself on straightened arms. Head hanging down, his tags rattling around his neck, he gave one forceful shove over her. Gnashing his teeth, he dug his knees into the ground to heave his big body over her again.
The third time, his back arched, and he raised his gorgeous face. His expression was agonized.
On the fourth shove, he bellowed, "Regin!" That agonized expression transformed to one of ecstasy just as she felt him ejaculate inside her.
Jet after jet of his scorching seed.
He bucked his hips in a frenzy, flooding her ... until she helplessly came from it.
FIFTY-FOUR
"Need--more," Declan grated between breaths, mere moments after she'd wrung from him the most mind-shattering pleasure he'd ever imagined.
He lay atop her, heart thundering overs hers, his swollen shaft still buried deep inside her. The haze began to lift, yet Declan was by no means sated. "I ... I can no' stop," he bit out.
Though he might have vague recollections of taking her in the past, this was still new to him. Those memories were distant, didn't feel real to him.
She was real to him. I'm not givin' her up to anyone. Never.
"Who says you have to stop?" she murmured, her body so warm and giving beneath his. Her silvery eyes were brilliant in the night, her blond brows drawn with passion. Her silken skin was bright with it.
"My woman's wantin' more?" he rasped, beginning to rock over her, reveling in their mingled wetness.
Her lids grew heavy. "Always." Her voice was throaty from her screams.
He raised himself up on straightened arms. "Tell me what you need, Regin." He wanted to pleasure her more than she'd ever been, to be the male she remembered above all others. He craved learning her body so well he knew it like his own.
"Try me."
Gauging her reaction, he began to languidly stir his hips between her thighs. "Do you like that?"
Arms falling back over her head, she purred, "I hate it."
But when he gave her quick pumps deep in her core, her head thrashed, and the addictive spark between them flared hotter.
He clasped her hip, his thumb sifting through her blond curls, seeking her swollen little clit. When he rubbed it, she went wild, digging her heels down to buck beneath him.
He groaned, "You like to move on me, lass?" Rising up on his knees, he positioned her over his lap.
At once, she wrapped her arms around his neck, parting her lips for more of his kiss. He covered them with his own, licking her tongue. Her mouth was indescribably sweet. ...
Clutching her luscious arse, he wrenched her down his length while he thrust his hips up. She moaned into their kiss.
Knees spread, he plunged into her with more force. When she tightened her hold around his neck, her straining nipples raked across his chest, whipping him into a lather. He ignored the tingling in his spine, the heavy ache in his ballocks. Won't come before she does.
Another harsh thrust ... and another. Her moan grew continuous, her thighs locked around his waist, her arse writhing against his palms. On the edge.
He used all his strength to take her, pounding up into her until his skin slapped hers, until her head fell back and she could do nothing but hold on as he pistoned beneath her. Mouth against her damp neck, he rasped, "You're goin' to come for me again?"
"Yes! I'm so close ..."
He tugged her hair down. "Do you want more of my spend inside you?"
She sobbed, "Yes, yes, yes!"
"Then wring it from me," he commanded at her ear. "Take it from me with your tight little quim."
"Declan!" she screamed, as she began to come wetly around his shaft.
A guttural sound broke from his chest when he felt her sheathe tugging him deeper, its slick clench undeniable.
In a daze, she moaned, "I want to feel it. Ah, gods, I want you. Want you."
At her words, pleasure racked him. His eyes rolled back in his head as he growled, "Yours, everything I am ... yours." With one last brutal thrust, the throbbing
pressure in his cock gave way, erupting in a searing rush of seed.
Chase clutched her as if he'd never let her go, one of his big hands palming the back of her head, the other gripping her ass. His hoarse exhalations fanned against her neck.
Still quivering with pleasure, Regin squeezed her own arms around him.
They clung to each other, as if they both feared something was about to pull them apart.
For how long they stayed like this, she didn't know. But when she managed to lift her eyelids, she saw that dawn had broken, the sun rising above a cloudless forest. She could hear gulls and waves. They must be close to the shore.
"Never lettin' you go, woman." He ran his cheek against hers. "Love you."
And still Declan remained, his memories foremost. Which was good. Because she was in love with Declan Chase. I want my Irishman.
Had the sand in the hourglass started to flow?
He drew back his head, wrapping the crook of his arm around her neck. Gazing down at her with fierce gray eyes, he said, "You belong to me, lass. It will always be you."
It will always be me--but will it ever be you? The stark light of day filled her with dread. What have I done? She'd talked herself into believing this time would be different. She should have fought him harder. But she'd been so desperate to love him.
Some things might have changed with this reincarnation, but the end result would be the same. Four times before, the man she'd made love to had been dead within hours. Those four times, her body had still borne the marks of his abandoned lovemaking--when his body had gone to the grave.
She shuddered. Ah, gods, how could I have? Chase would die; the hourglass would empty. And this time, she wouldn't survive losing him.
When her tears welled, his eyes went wide. "No, what's this? Shh, baby, please do no' cry."
As tears tracked down her face, she stared beyond him, awash in dread. The brief show of sunlight surrendered to gray. Rain misted once more.
"Lass, talk to me. You ken that I don't like it when you're quiet. This is because of the curse?" He petted her hair, rocking her. "I'm not goin' anywhere. Nothing will separate us again. Wouldn't I sense it if the end was near? I've never been more at peace in my entire life. It's ... pure peace, Regin."
With an angry shove, she clambered off him, disentangling herself from his body. "What about me? What about my peace?" She swayed on her feet as realization hit her. Aidan had never been the one cursed.
She was.
Regin was the one left to suffer, to mourn. To forever know what I'm missing.